13 New Fast Radio Bursts Detected

Jan 9, 2019

Some potential new pieces to the puzzle of fast radio bursts (FRBs) have been produced by a sophisticated telescope in Canada that detected a whopping 13 new occurrences of the mysterious phenomenon. The incredibly brief, but enormously powerful pulses emanating from somewhere in space have perplexed astronomers since first being spotted in 2007. Upon the discovery of the first FRB, scientists set about trying to solve the mystery and, in recent years, projects dedicated to searching for more of them have resulted in the number of documented bursts steadily increasing.

This brings us to a newly-published paper which details the discoveries of a radio telescope in Canada that reportedly picked up 13 FRBs during a scan of space this past summer. Increasing the total number of bursts detected so far to be around 70, the newfound FRBs may not merely be more fodder for the maddening scientific mystery, however, as these particular pulses differ slightly from those previously recorded. One assumes, therefore, that comparison between the different types of bursts found to date may yield some kind of clue or, at least, new questions about the phenomenon for astronomers to ask.